Q1 2013 Will Be The Best Start To Any Year... Ever

Looking at this past year, it featured some truly great games within the first three months, but the first quarter of 2013 will put 2012 and every single previous year to shame with its currently scheduled list of releases.

The art style looks amazing, I showed a friend of mine the trailer and gameplay of it. He was like omg this games looks amazing like it literally looks like an Anime that you can play. The art style and graphics are that good

Give Wind Waker or Okami to a casual gamer and see how far they can get. Cartoon visuals don't equal casual games they just help attract a casual audience, anyways all that really matters is that the game is fun

blame quarterly reports...everything is released to make profits for that quarter look as high as possible. It's a numbers game my friend. Funny how by this time...more companies haven't started taking another route on this. Also it is MOST LIKELY( not confirmed) that this is the last spring of this generation on consoles so have to roll out stuff early enough that the newer machines don't ruin your sales numbers.

It'd be suicide to launch a current gen AAA title towards the end of next year. That is why so many of these games are slated for the first part of the year. Normally we'd see huge releases like Gears, Tomb Raider and Bioshock lean towards a November release date.

Once we all start seeing what these next gen games have to offer, I think we are all going to be gearing up for that, which would mean some current gen games might be lost in the mix.

Once everyone sees the games and what the new consoles can do, people will want them. Do you not remember all the hype for games like Gears Of War and Killzone 2? People held off on buying games so they could get the new consoles and new games.

Why would I waste $60 on a game for a console that is about to die? I'd rather spend that $60 in part to pay for a new console or to buy a new game for the console.

The closer we get to the release of these new consoles, the less current consoles and current console games are going to sell.

Why do you think these huge AAA titles are getting rushed releases before E3? Think about it.

The current gen consoles won't "die" as soon as next-gen starts. It's not like everything just stops. I highly doubt that most gamers will jump right into next-gen considering the economy and the issues this gen had at start up. Price tags, hardware issues and so on.

Exactly, that's why the 1st 3 to 4 months of next year is gonna be epic. And most of the major publishers do not want to get outshined by E3 of 2013 because of a certain revolution may unfold. That's why its a pack 1st quarter.

I dunno why people are disagreeing with you. Probably because its more likely MS will show off new hardware than Sony next year.

***"Why would I waste $60 on a game for a console that is about to die?"***

Because the game is good? That's why I would buy a game at the end of a console's life cycle anyway.

Besides not everyone rushes out and buys a new console on launch day. Some people wait a year or two after the consoles releases because the software library should be deep by then, a price cut could possibly take place by then, and any issues with hardware should be fixed by then.

@Outside Yeah but honestly, that's for the casual and it doesn't relate to people like us the hardcore gamers that almost literally have to buy it at launch and save up money even if they're favorite game gets released for the PS3 and Xbox.

But I will have to disagree with @Chunky Lover on this one, part of what what you said at least. When the 360 made its debut back in 05 I remember Sony pushing there games harder than ever, big release titles were being made for the PS2 as well. Even after the PS3 came out Sony made sure that big last gen franchises were being seen on the PS2 even though they were being advertised for the Xbox and PS3. And Sony did this for a while, and believe it or not... it actually worked, software and games sales kept strong for the cheaper and far less power PS2 and Sony kept this stride going for awhile and even outselling the Xbox 360. Sony's momentum slowed down shortly after the Xbox started producing games that just weren't capable of running on the PS2.

Now will this continue after 8 years on the market next year? I think so, MS will push and still support software for the old 360 but probably not as long as Sony did with PS2. What I think'll happen is MS will slowly start to move content over to the new Xbox like DLC hitting the 720 first and the 360 will get it a month later. Then a month is 3 months 4 months 6 months a year and eventually not getting it at all. And the only way of getting it is purchasing a brand new 720.

Well, let's hope that both Microsoft and Sony learned from this generation and offer FULL backwards compatibility with the new consoles.

Microsoft, while they offered a large amount of their back-catalogue, eventually dropped the updates, leaving much wanted titles unsupported.

Whereas Sony offered almost full support for their last two consoles at launch, though eventually removed the ability to run the games in general, in favor of dropping the cost of manufacturing and dropping the sale price in turn. Though, and let's be real here, part of the reason was to get more people to buy the games off the playstation store.

seems like a silly way to cut into profits. I mean, they are dedicated gaming machines that personally i would rather them put the R&D into making a better system, than making it backwards compatible. Plus considering they are going to using different videocard ( ATI ) this will most likely not be the case.

I agree chunky. If your like me who's gonna get both if they should come out. Your looking at 1200 dollars just getting started which is like 20 games worth. No way most gamers arent gonna have to pick and choose.

systems will be at 400 each(better model most likely) 50 for an extra controller, 2-3 games, Its around 600.

When the new generation launches, will there be more PS4s in the wild, or PS3s? If you released the SAME game on both systems, which version do you think would sell the most copies? Will there be a little cannibalization? Sure, but at the start of the gen, it won't have that much of an impact.

Now let's imagine you're releasing a game for the 70+ million PS3s that will have been sold at that time, and it's not going to be on the 1-2 million PS4s. How does the existence of a platform that doesn't even HAVE the game impact sales on a platform that DOES?

More importantly, since most early adopters of consoles are hardcore gamers, you will likely STILL see them buying PS3 games. The mentality of a hardcore (or core, for that matter) gamer is not "Oh, well, the PS3 is almost here, so I'll pass up on God of War II, even though it looks amazing."

Just because there will be more PS3's, doesn't mean a game would necessarily do better on that console. If Sony were to come out with a new and improved Infamous 3 to launch the PS4, I think it would sell better on the PS4 than Infamous did on the PS3. All of those PS3's in the wild didn't really help that game push a ton of copies.

Its the same for Microsoft and some of the lesser IP's or games. Alan Wake 2 on the Xbox 720 at launch, would sell a lot better than an Alan Wake 2 on Xbox 360 at this point and time.

That is my point. You seem to stalk every opinion I put out there, since its my very own opinion, it cant really be wrong. This is all just opinion, if you disagree that is fine, but at least try and not get so personal about it.

Really? I'm getting it for the story. They said it will be similar to COO and GOS in terms of emotional story telling. The gameplay in single player looks refined and faster than ever and I've been hearing nothing but good from previews of MP. I'm all in. I'm with you on the beta though. Hope they do one :/

It is like a clearance sale before the next gen starts. Whether games targeted for this gen are bad or good they must be "cleared" or "released" by June in order to make the money spent on them back.

Otherwise, they would have to re-target the games to next gen consoles which would raise devt costs substantially.

I expect some to rate very well, but there will probably be a large portion of disappointments in the releases with games feeling half completed or not up to snuff because they have to release this gen.

not that i think most gamers care about politics (any more than blindly championing the agenda set forth by their political team), or that politics should really be a topic of discussion on n4g, and my comment was really just a joke; but the US has gone down hill even further in the last 4 years than it did in the previous 8. and things were already pretty bad so that's saying something. the economy is nearly in free fall, morality and common sense has been overshadowed by excessive political correctness which is being used to gut the constitution, public education is a big joke, and so on.

...not that things would be any better under Romney. Presidents are puppets carrying out an agenda that doesn't concern itself with the people...unless it's to take our rights away so that the super wealthy can have free reign. the US has become a fascist state. it's incredibly depressing...compounded by the fact that people are still such sheep in this country (and around the world).

The way the world is going I'm expecting the economy to collapse (EU, not the US) by the end of this year. If Spain goes, the rest of Europe will. Not sure if we will be safe here in UK. Anyway, IF that happens, it's a huge IF, then I wonder what will happen to these Q1 2013 release games. I'm sure sales in Europe will hurt.

Also, Obama seems like a cool President. But if you do a small bit of research you'll understand that behind the 'coolness', is a real devil.